TEAM – Together everyone achieves more – Feb 13th

Children’s hands on www.sxc.hu

Day 46 of blogging our way through Murray M’Cheynes Bible reading plan!

Genesis 46

Joseph’s story of the last twenty years to get to the place of rescuing Israel was for 70 men and their wives! People matter to God – God will go to extraordinary lengths to rescue people from a lost eternity and He wants to use us too!

Job 12

Job speaks again. Zophar has been a bit of a know all and Job’s responds is to reject his put down and reassert his own perspective of the situation. Job’s friends aren’t all knowing – he can’t be brushed aside so easily!

Not only is he suffering, but he has become a laughing stock too, even though he is righteous and blameless Job 12v4

In the next section he describes the wisdom and omnipotence of God – in every area of life, God’s power can be discerned, but Job expresses it in fatalistic despair.

Mark 16

The resurrection shows Jesus’ claims were all true! Death and sin have lost their sting. Jesus has won!

What do we do with v9-20?
Verse 8 “..because they were afraid” is a bizarre ending for a Gospel that begins with “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ… (good news)

Translations since the King James have a note to separate v9-20. This is primarily because it does not appear in the two major manuscripts (MSS) of the New Testament: the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus. These MSS were discovered in the 1800′s, long after the KJV was translated and published. Do these dozen verses belong in Mark? There are four possibilities:

Mark 16:9-20 are genuine as the ending of Mark’s gospel.

Mark’s gospel originally ended with verse 8.

The alternate ending found in a very few MSS is genuine.

The ending of Mark has been lost.

Which of these is correct? To ask this question is not to doubt the inspiration of the Scriptures or the authenticity of Mark. All it asks is, “Were these verses penned by Mark, or did they come from somewhere else?” If they are not a part of the original gospel, we should not treat them as Scripture. If they are original, then they carry as much authority as any other part of the gospel of Mark.
The biggest problems for the authenticity of v9-20 are..
Trying to harmonise v12-13 with Luke 24:30-35. In Marks account the two disciples didn’t believe. But in Luke it’s a key resurrection encounter that sets up how the 12 apostles could be authoritative witnesses of the resurrection!
Picking up snakes and drinking poison has led to some wild American church groups trying to kill themselves!

I don’t think option 2 works – v8 would be an odd ending
I’d like to think option 1 is correct, but it seems a bit out of keeping with the other gospels. Option 4 relies on just 2 manuscripts being the most accurate.

I don’t know! But I’d preach the truths in v9-20 from Matthew and Luke!!!

Romans 16

Phoebe is a servant – deaconess, so I do think deacons can be male of female. In other words men and women can serve the church in away except for eldership, which is open to men called and living in the good of the instructions to Timothy in 1 Tim3.
Priscilla and Aquila pop up all over the place – a great godly couple who moved to see churches planted. They served Paul’s apostolic team and were great pioneers.
Verse 7 “outstanding among the apostles” doesn’t mean they were apostles, but they are considered to be outstanding by the apostles. “among the” means “by” not “as”!
There are lots of women and men serving in Paul’s teams.

People matter to God. Teams matter to God and to Paul. Let’s build some great teams here at the Gateway to be a gateway for the gospel to goto the nations!